Tally's Breakup
by bookfish
Summary: One-Shot: The end of Pretties when Tally broke up in David in David's POV. A very interesting look into David's thoughts about the relationship between Tally and Zane. Sorry I'm not very good at summaries, btw


**A/N: Hello! This is my first 'Uglies' fanfic, so PLEASE be nice with the reviews! I usually write about 'The Outsiders', but I just HAD to write this after I read 'Pretties' because David's my fav character (well, guy character, that is) and I wanted to take a look into what his thoughts might've been with Tally's breakup. So, here it is!**

**Oh, and if you've read some of my stories before, you'll know what I like to pick 'theme songs' for every chapter, although I often fail, but I'm successful this time, so…**

**Songs for this chapter: "Until You're Mine" by Demi Lovato  
"Save You" by Kelly Clarkson**

Tally had launched herself over everyone who was scanning everything into the observatory. I watched in wonder; I wasn't completely used to her new body yet. After a few seconds of wonder, I realised that I had to get in, too, and followed in after her.

She was kneeling beside Zane, trying to get him to show her which tooth hurt. She tore his mouth wide open, and stared into it. I walked up to her and saw what she was staring at; it was an extremely white tooth, mismatched with all the others. I quickly took out my scanner and waved it past his face, and after a second, it buzzed crazily, sensing a tracker.

I was surprised. "It's in his mouth?"

"In his _tooth_!" Tally corrected angrily. "Get your mother."

"But, Tally-" I began to protest, trying to tell her she couldn't operate on a tooth, much less a pretty tooth, in just a few minutes.

"Get her!" she interrupted. "You and I can't take out a tooth!"

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Neither can she. Not in a few minutes."

She stood and looked into my face. "What are you saying, David?"

"We'll have to leave him behind." I forced the words out of my mouth, trying to tell her calmly. "They'll be here soon."

"No!" she suddenly shouted at me. "Go get her!"

I swore as I turned away from the uncooperative Tally and ran to the door to get Mom.

I found Croy right away, and decided to ask him where I could find her. He was busy scanning stuff and throwing it aside, a panicked look on his face.

"Croy!" I called, and he looked up.

"What is it, David?" his voice asked urgently, as if he didn't follow my commands, the world would end.

"I need to find Maddy. Where is she?"

"Maddy? Why are you looking for you Mom at this sort of time, David? She's helping us scan for the bug!" he cried.

"She doesn't need to anymore." I said softly, half hoping he wouldn't hear.

"Why?"

"Because," I paused, swallowing as nervous sweat poured down my face "we found the bug."

"Well, where is it?"

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. For once in my lifetime, I didn't know what to do.

"David!" Croy nearly shouted into my ear, as if he was trying to wake me up.

"Zane." I finally answered.

"It's inside Zane?"

"Yeah," I swallowed again as my heart beat faster, "it's in his tooth."

"But how…"

"Doesn't matter, Tally asked me to find Maddy." I explained as confusion covered Croy's face.

"I'll come with you, maybe I can help." He suggested as he put the scanner down.

"Okay, get Maddy."

"Be right back." He said as he ran off to get her.

My heart began pounding as I dreaded what would happen; we had to go, but Tally refused to move an inch without Zane, but how were we gonna leave if one of our most valuable Crims stayed behind?

Maddy came in a minute with Croy, and she had a metal tool.

"Get me to him." She commanded.

I didn't argue as I brought her into the observatory, and nearly froze when I saw Tally crouching beside him, possibly plotting a way out…

Maddy forcibly opened Zane's mouth, and he whined in pain. She told Tally to hold a flashlight to shine in his mouth, and when she did, the tooth was clear. Maddy poked around a little bit, then gave up and said, "This isn't good." She then let go of Zane's mouth and his head fell to the blankets. With a groan, he closed his eyes.

"Just take it out!" Tally commanded, stress clearly in her voice.

"They've rooted it to the bone." She then turned to Croy, who was standing beside me, a shocked look on his face. "Finish packing up. We have to run."

"Do something for him!" Tally cried out passionately.

Maddy angrily snatched the light from her. "Tally, it's bonded to the bone. I'd have to shatter his jaw to remove it."

"So don't take it out, just make it stop sending! Smash the tooth! He can take it!"

Maddy just shook her head and said, "Pretty teeth are made of the same stuff they use in aircraft wings. You can't just smash them. I'd need special dental nanos to break it down." she then suddenly turned the flashlight to Tally, reaching to her mouth.

"What are you doing?" Tally questioned as she turned away.

"Just making sure about you."

"But I didn't go into the hos-" she began, but Mom ignored her anyway and opened her mouth. I thought I heard Tally growl at her, but let her look around anyway. When Mom was done, Tally asked sarcastically, "Satisfied?"

"For now. But we have to leave Zane behind."

"Forget it!" Tally yelled at her.

"They'll be here in another ten minutes," I put in, finally remembering I could talk, let alone breathe.

"Less." Maddy corrected.

Tally just stood there for a minute, dazed, then said, "I won't leave him."

"Tally-" I began, but Maddy jumped in.

"It doesn't matter. Technically, she's still a pretty-head."

"I am not!"

"You didn't even take the right pill." She placed a hand on my shoulder. "Tally's still got the lesions. Once they scan her brain, they won't even put her under the knife. They'll think she just came along for the ride." She tried to convince me to leave them both behind.

No. I wouldn't let her.

"Mom! We are not leaving her!" I yelled as loudly as I could.

"And I'm not coming." Tally told me.

Mom shook her head. "Perhaps the lesions aren't as important as we thought. Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They _want_ to be vapid and lazy and vain"- she glanced at Tally- "and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it."

"Az was right. I'm cured now." Tally nearly whispered.

I painfully let out a growl. "Cured or not, Tally, you can't stay here. I don't want to lose you again! Mom! Do something!"

"You want to argue with her? Go ahead." She spun around on a single heel and strode to the entrance. "We're leaving in two minutes. With or without you."

Tally and I were silent, like when we'd seen each other in the ruins for the first time in what seemed like forever. I remembered those painful memories I'd thought that morning, memories I didn't want to keep in my mind. Memories of Tally insisting to take the place of testing the cure to help Shay, to help everyone. Memories of her telling me the truth, and me not able to take it. I couldn't think of her that way… I couldn't think of her as an enemy. After all those weeks of being with her, who can think that? And after not seeing her for months, who could not remember that?

Suddenly, after a few minutes of thought, she took his hand and said to me, "I'm not leaving him."

"Think logically, Tally." I told her slowly. "You can't help Zane if you stay here. You'll both be captured."

"Your mother's right. They won't do anything more to my brain, and I can help him from inside the city."

"We can smuggle Zane the cure, like we did for you."

"I didn't _need_ the cure, David. Maybe Zane won't either. I'll keep him bubbly, I can help him rewire his brain. But he won't stand a chance without me."

I was about to say something, then remembered what my Mom had explained to me about prettiness. I then realised. "You're just staying with him because he's pretty."

I noticed that Tally's eyes were widening. "_I'm what?_"

"Don't you see it? It's like you always used to say: It's evolution. Since your Crim friends got here, Mom's been explaining to me how prettiness works." I pointed my finger to Zane. "He's got those big, venerable eyes, that childlike perfect skin. He looks like a baby to you, a needy child, which makes you want to help him. You're not thinking rationally. You're giving yourself up just because he's pretty!"

She just stared at me in disbelief. "It's not the way Zane looks, David," she told me, voice trembling of anger. "It's because he makes me bubbly, and because we took a lot of risks together. It could just as easily be me lying there, and he would stay with me if it was."

_I would, too,_ I thought to myself. If that was her lying there, dying, I'd want to be with her every moment of every day every week, for weeks or even months on end, until her last breath. I'd want to be with her until the end of her life, or maybe mine.

"It's not just programming!"

"No. It's because I love him."

I started speaking again, but the sound just choked off. She loved him, maybe the way I loved her.

She simply sighed. "Go on, David. Whatever your mother said a second ago, she won't really leave you. They'll all get caught if you don't start moving now."

"Tally-"

"Go!"

"But you can-"

"Get your ugly face _out of here_!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

The echoes of her cry repeated around us, and she turned and crouched by Zane, cradling his face and kissing him.

Most people would think I ran out because of that one four-letter word, but it wasn't. I knew I'd be ugly to her; we'd known that all along. No, it wasn't some four-letter word that made me run away; it was that four-second action. That action she took of turning around and comforting him, comforting that horribly pretty face. That dying face.

And it was then that I realised.

It finally got through to my head that she didn't love me anymore. She didn't care about me; that morning had been nothing. When she seemed to still be in love with me, she really wasn't. It was still him; it'd been him all along.

Or was it?

Did she truly love him in her heart, and would she risk her life for him? I knew I would risk my life for Tally; I already had. But was she really in love with him, or had she just thought that she was? It seemed to me from my knowledge of Pretties that they didn't really feel very… deeply anymore. Maybe she had been pretty-minded whenever she thought she loved him. Maybe whenever she felt close to him, she'd simply been pretty-minded, just unaware that it wasn't true love. The love I felt for her, the deep compassion I always felt whenever I was around her, or even thought of her.

She could love him, she could throw her life away if she wanted to. As long as she was happy, or at least thought she was, was good enough for me. I wanted her to feel good about her life, to be happy all the time.

And if that meant leaving her, I'd even do that.

They were the hardest steps I'd ever taken in my life, just leaving her, after seeing that fake compassion she felt for that dying face. I could hardly live for the months she was gone, and I'd only had one day with her.

One day. Then she was gone. Gone because of a pretty face and a tracker.

I would probably commit suicide after the first few days of not seeing her. And I was still thinking of that when we lifted off.

And so the princess and chosen the prince and not the toad.

**A/N: So… I hope you liked it! I'm REALLY nervous about this one-shot, so again, please be nice about the comments! **

**Oh, and unfortunately, I'm not Scott Westerfeld, so I don't own the 'Uglies' series, so credit goes to him for most of the dialogue here. **

**Thx for reading! :D **


End file.
